fo r e st s o f

Pangai
T H E R U L EBO O K
v0.9.12

Forests of Pangaia
2 to 4 players from 14 years (40-60 minutes)
By Thomas Franken

Before the dawn of time, Gaia, the primal goddess of our world, gave birth to the first trees. Deeply rooted and with
mighty crowns they slowly spread over the continent of Pangaia. In their mission to make the barren land fertile, the trees
grew without ceasing and cherished the timeless Rituals of Gaia. Since then, an abundant force has been flowing through
their roots and veins, bringing life to the highest heights and deepest depths.

Note to our backers: This is the content of the Standard Edition at the
GAME COMPONENTS start of the KS campaign. Its content will evolve during the campaign.

16 Land Tiles 40 Trees 24 Cards

24 Treetops 40 Resource Tokens

16 Seeds

4 Player Boards
40 Life Tokens
4 Spirit Pawns

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OVERVIEW
You are a young spirit of the forest, sent out by the goddess Gaia to bring the first life to the world. While you are growing
your trees across the vast and barren lands of Pangaia, you must complete a series of Rituals to honor mother nature. A
successful Ritual gives you Life Energy and the game ends after all Rituals have been completed. The player with the most
Life Energy wins.

Land Types & Resources Land Spaces

Rain lands Snow lands 3 Land spaces
(to place seeds & trees)
Rain Snow

Wind Sun
Water space
Land type (for spirits only)

Wind lands Sun lands

Achievements
Rewarded
Life Energy
Trees & Growth
Treetops

Achievement
condition
Seed Level 1 Tree Level 2 Tree Level 3 Tree

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 F
SETUP OF THE GAME

For each player place a snow, rain, sun and wind

land tile in the middle of the play area. All players
A
E
randomly assemble the tiles into a continuous
map, while each tile placed must touch other
tiles on at least 3 sides.

Each player receives a set of 10 Trees, 6 Treetops,

B 4 Seeds, 1 Spirit Pawn and a Player Board in one
color of their choice.

Each player places 3 of their Seeds and all 6

Treetops on the corresponding slots of their
C Player Board. Keep your Spirit Pawn and the last
Seed on the left hand side on your Player Board.

Place the Life Tokens and all Resource Tokens to

D the side, sorted by type.

Shuffle all Ritual cards and deal one to

each player face down. Place the remain- A
E ing deck of Ritual cards near the map,
then place the top three cards face up in
a row next to the deck.

Shuffle all Achievement cards and place

the top 2 cards face up near the deck of Ritu-
F als. They will be awarded at the end of the game.
Put the remaining Achievement cards back
inside the box.

Each player places their free Seed on a land

G space of their choice. The youngest player be-
gins.

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 Example Setups

2-Player Example
D

3-Player Example

C 4-Player Example

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THE RITUALS example
There are 14 Rituals the Spirits can perform to unleash A B
Gaia’s Life Energy (shown by the symbol). The goal of
the game is to earn the most by fulfilling the require-
ments of these Rituals. The game ends when the last
Ritual card is taken by any player.

There are Trail Rituals, Star Rituals and Peak Rituals.

In A the only path connecting your trail endpoints
is by going through 1 opponent Tree.
Trail Ritual In B you would select the longer path because it
contains no Trees belonging to another player.
A Trail Ritual is defined by 2 land types, representing the
beginning and the end of a trail. To fulfill a Trail Ritual you
need to own a Tree on each of those 2 lands and between Scoring: You receive 1 for each of your Trees on the
them there must be a continuous path of trees belong- trail and for each opponent Tree of level 1. Opponent
ing to any player. Trees of level 2 or higher are not counted. Instead their
owners receive 1 Resource matching their Tree’s land
A path of Trees reaching type.
from a snow land to a
wind land.

Path Selection: First choose two of your Trees, one on

each land type defined by the Ritual. Connect those In this example, you choose a trail of 5 Trees. You
receive 3 from your own Trees and 1 from
Trees by following the path using the fewest Trees be-
another player’s level 1 Tree.
longing to an opponent. If there are multiple ways to
The player with the level 2 Tree receives 1 .
connect, choose the shortest path. If there is a tie, you
choose which path.

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Star Ritual
A Star Ritual is defined by 1 land type, representing the
center of a star. To fulfill a Star Ritual you need to own a
Tree on that central land and have at least 1 and up to 6
other Trees adjacent to it.
Peak Ritual
A Peak Ritual is defined by 1 land type. To fulfill a Peak
Ritual you need to own a Tree on that land and it needs to
be higher than any other tree adjacent to it.
Note: You can grow a Tree as high as you want.

A star-shaped formation Scoring: You receive 1 + 1 additional for each level

of Trees around a sun land. of that Tree.

A single Tree on a
wind land.

Scoring: You score for all Trees adjacent to the central

Tree. As before you receive 1 for each of your Trees
and for each opponent Tree of level 1. Opponent Trees
of level 2 or higher are not counted. Instead their owners
For this level 3 Tree
receive 1 Resource matching their Tree’s land type.
you receive 4 .

A wind land

You choose one of your Trees on a wind land to

In this example, you choose one of your Trees on
a sun land as the center of your Star Ritual. You
receive a total of 4 for the Trees adjacent to it,
where 3 are your own Trees and one is a level 1 Tree
of another player. Your central Tree is not counted.
fulfill your Peak Ritual that is higher than all other
trees around it. Then you receive one + one
for each level of your Tree, in this case 4.
The other two Trees are both smaller and have no
further effect on the Ritual.

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Resources
In the course of the game you plant Seeds and let them
grow. Every time you grow a new Tree you also gain a Re-
source equal to the Tree’s land type. Those Resources can
be spent to grow your Trees to higher levels and unlock
additional Seeds on the way (see Add Treetops)
PHASES OF A TURN
The youngest player begins and turn order proceeds
clockwise.
Your turn is divided into 3 phases that you play in se-
quence. After you complete the last phase, pass the turn
to the next player.

Sun Wind Rain Snow 1 Grow Seeds

When paying the cost of growing a Treetop you need to
compose Resources of different land types. 2 Spirit Action
A cost of 3 Resources can be payed by
a combination of e.g. but 3 Add Treetops
3 not .

Planting Seeds is central to maintain a healty flow of Re-
sources and one way to do that is by growing larger Trees
that spread new Seeds. On the other hand, performing
Rituals will cause your Trees to decay and leave Seeds
behind (see Decay). Both mechanics will be covered in the
following sections.
During the Grow Seeds phase you check your Seeds you
planted during previous turns and evaluate if they are
able grow and become new Trees.
During the Spirit Action phase you can choose between
different actions of your Spirit and plant new Seeds on
the map or play a Ritual card.

Designer’s Note: Like growth, decay is a central part In the last phase you may Add Treetops from your Player
of nature. But as with many things it’s important to Board to your Trees by spending your Resources.
find a good balance between those two forces.

While growth will give your forest more map con-

trol, decay is the key to open up room and start a
new life cycle.

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 1 GROW SEEDS examples
During the Grow Seeds phase, the Seeds you planted
during previous turns may grow and become new Trees.
You have a single Seed on an other-
wise empty land. During the Grow
Seeds phase your Seed grows and you
replace it by a level 1 Tree. For growing
on a wind land you receive 1 .

Apply the following rules to all your Seeds placed on the

map and check if they are allowed to grow.
There is a tie between your Seed and
A single Seed on an empty land can always grow. a Seed of another player. During the
Grow Seeds phase your Seed does
NOT grow and remains dormant until
If there’s a tie between Seeds of different players, only the
next round. Alternatively you can pay 1
player controlling the most Trees adjacent to that land can
to still grow this turn.
grow. The Spirit Pawn is counted as a Tree as well.

If one player has more Seeds on the same land than oth-
ers, only the player with the most Seeds can grow.
There is a tie between your Seed and
a Seed of another player. During the
In all other cases the Seeds remain dormant and stay on
Grow Seeds phase you have the ma-
the map! However, you may spend during this phase
jority of adjacent Trees and your Seed
to still let your Seed grow against all odds. Spend 1 for
will become a new Tree. Both players
every Seed missing to either reach a tie or have the most
receive 1 .
Seeds on the land space.

When your Seeds grow, take all Seeds back from the land
space and instead place one level 1 Tree from your inven-
tory. Every player who had at least one Seed on the land You have the majority of Seeds on a
gains one Resource matching the land type. land. During the Grow Seeds phase
All new trees in this phase grow simultaneously, the order your Seeds grow and are replaced by a
of growth doesn’t matter. level 1 Tree. For growing on a wind land
both players receive 1 .
Note: You can only grow your Seeds when you still have
Trees left. If all your 10 Trees are on the map you can’t
grow any further unless some of your Trees decay (see
section Decay).
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 2 SPIRIT ACTION
In the second phase of your turn, use your Spirit Pawn by
choosing one of the 3 following Spirit Actions.
You can perform the same action in consecutive turns.
A Plant
Place your Spirit Pawn on any empty lake space on the
map and put any number of Seeds on one land adjacent
to your Spirit. There can never be two Spirits on the same
lake space.
Note: You can also place seeds on lands with a tree.
B Gather
Place your Spirit Pawn on your Player Board and receive 1
Resource of your choice.
C Pray
Place your Spirit Pawn on your Player Board and play a
Ritual card. You can choose to play the Ritual card from
your hand or one of the 3 open Ritual cards.
Depending on the type of Ritual card you play, point out
the Trees that fulfill the Ritual and apply the scoring rules
explained in the The Rituals section. Then all of your Trees
that were involved in the Ritual Decay.
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Decay
All of your Trees that were counted in the scoring of a
Trail Ritual or Star Ritual will partially decay and lose
one level.
A level 1 Tree with no additional Treetops decays to level 0
and you simply put the Tree back in your inventory. Then
place one of your Seeds on the land space instead. You
may retake any of your planted Seeds on the map and
use them for this action. If you don’t have enough Seeds
left the, land remains empty.
For Trees of level 2 or higher, remove the topmost Tree-
top and place it back on your Player Board on an empty
slot of your choice.
All your Trees decay by one level. Higher Trees lose
a Treetop.
Level 1 Trees
leave a Seed.
A Tree invloved in a Peak Ritual will fully decay and is
moved back to your inventory including all it’s Treetops.
Place a number of Seeds equal to the former Tree’s level
on the land space or to one or more land spaces adjacent
to it. Again, you can also place seeds on a land with a tree.
Finally discard the Ritual card. If you played the card from
your hand, draw a new one from the three faceup cards
next to the map or from the top of the deck (blind draw).
I one of the three faceup cards is missing, replace with a
new card taken from the top of the draw pile.
 3 ADD TREETOPS
Now you may spend your Resources to unlock additional
Treetops and let your Trees grow taller. The six Treetops
on your Player Board are placed on different slots which
vary in side effects and cost. Some slots allow you to
You decide to take a Treetop for 3 Resources
place additional Seeds on the map, others reward you
and spend . After placing the Treetop
with extra at the end of the game.
on one of your Trees you are allowed to place 2 of
Note: During your turn you may unlock as many treetops
your Seeds on the lands adjacent to your Tree.
as you want.
The slot indicates that by the end of the game you
will earn 1 unless the slot will be covered by a
Treetop again.

Unlocking Seeds
You start with one single Seed that can be used each
round to plant a new Tree. To be able to plant more
than one Seed per round you need to unlock additional
When paying the cost of growing a Treetop you need to
Seeds from your Player Board.
compose Resources of different land types.
If you don’t have enough different Resources may at any
On the Player Board you have 3 additional Seeds that
point spend your and use it as a Resource of any land
are locked by one or more Treetops. To unlock a Seed,
type.
you first need to grow all Treetops connected to it.
Once unlocked you move the Seed to the left side of
The cost to place The additional
this Treetop on one your Player Board. The Seed stays unlocked for the re-
you gain when this
of your Trees. 3 slot is free by the mainder of the game.
end of the game.

The number of Seeds

1 1
You can take the Seed once
This Seed is locked by 2
you can place around Treetops. the 2 connected Treetops are
the Tree receiving this placed on your Trees and both
Treetop. slots are empty.

Slots with a Seed icon allow you to immediately place 1 or

2 additional Seeds on lands adjacent to the Tree receiv-
ing the Treetop. If you have no Seeds left, you may retake At the end of this phase, pass the turn to the next player.
any of your planted Seeds and use them for this action.

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END OF THE GAME
The game will end, when a player takes the last open
Ritual card OR if a player has grown all 10 Trees and is not
+
Life
able to fulfill any of the open Ritual cards. Achievement
Tokens
In both cases the game ends after the current round. All
players play an equal number of turns.

Once all players have completed their final turn, each

player completes a Grow Seeds phase following turn
+ +
order. During this final Grow Seeds phase you may not
collect Resources or spend .
Hand
Ritual
+ Treetop
Slots
Scoring
First total all your indicated by the Life Tokens re-
ceived during the game.

Award the 2 Achievements selected for this game.

In case of a tie for an Achievement, the tied players re-
ceive 1 each.
CREDITS
Author: Thomas Franken
Score the Ritual card in your hand if you fulfilled the
Graphic Design: Thomas Franken
Ritual’s requirements and receive the . Don’t decay
Illustrations: Chris Karbach, Florian Moncomble
your trees.
Character Concepts: Marcel Domke
Cover Art: Anna Anikeyka
Finally, add for unlocked Treetops as indicated on the
free slots of your Player Board.
A special thanks to all those who helped playtest the game
through all it’s countless iterations: Sonja, Julia, Mamader, Tobi,
The player with the most wins the game and gains the
Rainer, Lutz, Simon, Martin, Anne, Daniel, Kelvin, Schubi, Nancy,
blessing of Gaia.
Andre & Thymos, Benno, Marco & Sean from Spielwiese, Aaron
from Paperweightgames, my dear family and many many oth-
In the event of a tie, the tied players share the victory.
ers.

© 2021 Pangaia Games • www.pangaia.games

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